Extendable shelf apparatus

ABSTRACT

The present disclosure discloses an extendable shelf comprising: plastic upper covers, joinable net sheets, clamping pieces, bamboo-shaped pipes, threaded connectors, seamless cone sleeves, and adjusters etc. The extendable shelf may be configured to be extended along a left and right direction, and along an upward and downward direction. The present disclosure provides many advantages such as a simple and compact structure, good stability, high weight-bearing capability, convenience for disassembly and assembly, saving bamboo-shaped pipes, low cost, elegant appearance, and good structural integrity.

RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit of priority of Chinese Utility Model Patent Application No. ZL 2008 2 0078676.2, filed on 23 Jan. 2008, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to shelving, particularly to an extendable shelf.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Some existing shelves include adjusters, net sheets with cone sleeves, bamboo-shaped circular pipes for supporting, connectors (if upper pipes and lower pipes needed), clamping pieces, and upper covers etc. Such shelves assembled by bamboo-shaped circular pipes have a fixed size, and cannot be extended along a left and right direction. When extending along a left and right direction is required, additional components are typically used.

For example, the two group of shelves may be connected together horizontally by clasps of iron pipes and N-shaped iron hooks, or by iron wire hooks on net sheets and holes drilled on the iron pipes. Such a combined shelf, by means of the clasps of iron pipes and the N-shaped iron hooks or through the iron wire hooks on the net sheets and the holes drilled on the iron pipes, may have a number of defects, including, but not limited to, poor integrity, because of joining traces, high cost, because of additional components, poor stability, poor weight-bearing capability (the shelf with clasps and N-shaped hooks and the shelf assembled by hanging the net sheets on the pipes) and an inelegant appearance.

Summary of The Invention

An object of the present disclosure may be to overcome the defects of the existing ordinary shelf assembled by circular pipes which cannot be extended in left or right direction, and to provide a shelf which includes the additional function of being extended along a left and right direction, and along an upward and downward direction.

A technical solution adopted by the present disclosure is that: an extendable shelf is provided, which may include a plurality of plastic top covers and a plurality of adjusters, wherein the plastic top covers may be T-shaped plastic bolts, and the adjusters may be foundation bolts. The extendable shelf may further include a plurality of joinable net sheets, a plurality of clamping pieces, a plurality of bamboo-shaped pipes, a plurality of threaded connecting rods, a plurality of upper seamless cone sleeves and a plurality of lower seamless cone sleeves, wherein both ends of each bamboo-shaped pipe are provided with inner iron plug by means of punching.

The plurality of bamboo-shaped pipes may be assembled in pairs through thread engagement of said plurality of threaded connecting rods to form a plurality of bamboo-shaped pipes. The plurality of plastic upper covers, the plurality of joinable net sheets, the plurality of bamboo-shaped pipes, the plurality of clamping pieces, the plurality of threaded connecting rods, the plurality of upper seamless cone sleeves, the plurality of lower seamless cone sleeves, and the plurality of adjusters, which are assembled together in an extendable manner to form a whole shelf, which includes a plurality of layers, i.e., a top layer, a middle layer and a bottom layer, and a plurality of rows, i.e. a left row and a right row, of the joinable net sheets arranged on the bamboo-shaped pipes.

The plurality of adjusters may be thread engaged to inner threads of iron inner plugs punched into the bottom ends of the plurality of bamboo-shaped pipes, and the plurality of plastic top covers are engaged to inner threads of iron plugs punched into the top ends of the plurality of bamboo-shaped pipes.

Each of the plurality of joinable net sheets may be a rectangular net piece comprising top boundary lines and bottom boundary lines, which may surround grid pieces and be welded thereto,

the plurality of upper seamless cone sleeves may be respectively mounted on the two top corners of one side of upper layer of the plurality of joinable net sheets, and the plurality of lower seamless cone sleeves may be respectively mounted on the top corners of the other side of lower layer of the plurality of net sheets.

One end of the top boundary line may be punched and bent near the lower seamless cone sleeves to encompass the grid pieces at one side, then may be welded to connect with the upper seamless cone sleeves at the other side; one end of the bottom boundary line may be punched and bent near the upper seamless cone sleeves to encompass the grid pieces at one side, then may be welded and connected with the lower seamless cone sleeves at the other side.

Each of the height of the plurality of upper seamless cone sleeves and the height of the plurality of lower seamless cone sleeves may be half of that of cone sleeves of net sheets in the existing shelf.

The clamping pieces may be concave with protruding slices on one side, grooves on the other side, and tongues on the inner wall, which may be narrow at the top but wide at the bottom;

At least one of said clamping pieces may be combined together so as to form a hollow truncated cone by inserting one into another, then fixedly placed on the joint of the plurality of bamboo-shaped pipes for connecting with the joinable net sheets.

The plurality of bamboo-shaped pipes may be pipe-shaped elements with slots uniformly placed on the surfaces thereof, the inner sides of the top end and bottom end of each said bamboo-shaped pipes being provided with iron inner plugs having inner threads by means of punching; the plurality of bamboo-shaped pipes may be connected and mounted to form a plurality of double-height bamboo-shaped pipes via the threads on the six connecting rods.

At least one of said clamping pieces may be combined by inserting one into another are engaged and fixed in the slots at the surface of the bamboo-shaped pipes via the tongue placed on the inner wall.

The plurality of top seamless cone sleeves and the plurality of bottom seamless cone sleeves which are mounted at the top corners of the plurality of net pieces may be respectively inserted to encompass the outer surfaces of the two clamping pieces engaged with each other.

The threaded connecting rods may be double-ended bolts which may have outer threads 51, 52 on the two ends and openings 53 at the middle.

The plurality of net pieces, at the plurality of top corners of which are respectively mounted the plurality of top seamless cone sleeves and the plurality of bottom seamless cone sleeves, are respectively placed and fixed in sequence, from bottom to top and from left to right, at the plurality of layers, i.e. a bottom layer, a middle layer and a top layer, of the plurality of approximately bamboo-shaped pipes, which may be surrounded by two said clamping pieces combined together.

Resulting from the above innovative technical methods, some advantages of the present disclosure are as follows: simple and compact structure; good stability; high weight-bearing capability; the position of the joinable net sheets of the extendable shelf can be adjusted freely; convenience for disassembly and assembly; low cost, elegant appearance; and good integrity.

The detailed technology and preferred embodiments implemented for the present disclosure are described in the following paragraphs accompanying the appended drawings for people skilled in this field to well appreciate the features of the claimed invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates schematically a structural diagram of an extendable shelf according to the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 illustrates schematically an enlarged partial view of the net sheets interconnected in horizontal direction at position A according to the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 illustrates schematically an enlarged partial view of the bamboo-shaped pipes interconnected in vertical direction at position B according to the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 illustrates schematically an enlarged partial view of the clamping pieces interconnected with the bamboo-shaped pipes at position C according to the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 illustrates schematically an enlarged partial view of the plastic upper cover interconnected with the bamboo-shaped pipes at position D according to the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 illustrates schematically an enlarged partial view of the adjuster interconnected with the bamboo-shaped pipes at position E according to the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a front view of the net piece according to the present disclosure;

FIG. 8 is a left view of the net piece according to the present disclosure;

FIG. 9 is a top view of the net piece according to the present disclosure;

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of the clamping piece according to the present disclosure;

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of a layer of net sheets interconnected according to the present disclosure;

FIG. 12 shows schematically the cone sleeve according to the present disclosure;

FIG. 13 is a front view of the clamping piece according to the present disclosure;

FIG. 14 is a right view of the clamping piece according to the present disclosure;

FIG. 15 is a top view of the clamping piece according to the present disclosure.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring now to FIGS. 1-15, an extendable shelf in accordance with the present disclosure is provided. The present disclosure provides a shelf, which may comprise a plurality of plastic upper covers 1, a plurality of joinable net sheets 2, a plurality of clamping pieces 3, a plurality of bamboo-shaped pipes 4, six threaded connectors 5, a plurality of upper seamless cone sleeves 61, a plurality of lower seamless cone sleeves 62 and a plurality of adjusters 7, in which their structures may be similar. Extendable shelf may further include plastic upper cover 1, joinable net piece 2, top boundary line 21, bottom boundary line 22, grid piece 23, clamping piece 3, tongue 31, protruding slice 32, groove 33, bamboo-shaped pipe 4 with inner iron plugs punched at their ends, slot of pipes 41, threaded connecting rod 5, top seamless cone sleeve 61, bottom seamless cone sleeve 62, and adjuster 7.

It should be noted that the quantities of the elements described herein are provided merely for exemplary purposes. For example, the discussion of six joinable net sheets is provided merely as an example, as other numbers may be used as well. Of course, this concept may be similarly applied to any and/or all of the other elements described herein.

In some embodiments, these components may be made of any material, such as, e.g., plastic or metal. Further, the plastic upper covers 1 may be T-shaped plastic bolts, and the adjusters 7 may be foundation bolts. A plurality of these components mounted and connected repeatedly one by one form a shelf with good aesthetic effect which is may be extendable in all direction.

In some embodiments, by mounting and combining six plastic upper covers 1, six joinable net sheets 2, thirty-six clamping pieces 3, twelve bamboo-shaped pipes 4, six threaded connecting rods 5, twelve upper seamless cone sleeves 61 and lower seamless cone sleeves 62, and six adjusters 7, one by one, it can obtain an extendable shelf with two rows and three layers. Depending on the number of those components, a larger or smaller shelf may be combined as required without any change in mounting and connecting way. The plastic upper covers 1 may be arranged on the ends of the top bamboo-shaped pipes respectively, the adjusters 7 may be arranged at the ends of the bottom bamboo-shaped pipes 4 to enable the shelf to be placed on the ground stably.

Each joinable net piece 2 may be a rectangular net piece comprising top boundary lines and bottom boundary lines, which may be surrounded by grid pieces 23 and may be welded thereto. Twelve upper seamless cone sleeves 61 may be respectively mounted on the two top corners of one side of upper layer of six joinable net sheets 2, and twelve lower seamless cone sleeves 62 may be respectively mounted on the two top corners of the other side of lower layer of these net sheets 2.

One end of the top boundary line 21 may be punched and bent near the lower seamless cone sleeves 62 to encompass the grid pieces 23, then may be CO2 welded to be connected with two upper seamless cone sleeves 61 at the other side. One end of the bottom boundary line may be punched and bent near the upper seamless cone sleeves 61 to encompass the grid pieces 23, then may be CO2 welded and connected with two identical structure lower seamless cone sleeves 62 at the other side.

In the present disclosure, the height of the seamless cone sleeves 61, 62 may be half of the height of cone sleeves of net sheets in the prior shelf. The cone sleeves with such height may be welded respectively on the four top corners of the joinable net sheets 2. Since the end of each side of the top boundary line 21 or bottom boundary line may be punched and bent near the seamless cone sleeves 6 first, then welded and connected with four seamless cone sleeves 61 or 62, in this way, it may ensure the surfaces of the two adjacent joinable net sheets are positioned at approximately an identical plane.

The bamboo-shaped pipes 4 may refer to the pipe-shaped elements with a plurality of slots 41 uniformly placed at the surfaces. There may be iron plugs with inner thread punched into the ends of the pipe-shaped elements. For the convenience of mounting, twelve bamboo-shaped pipes 4 may be connected via the six threaded connecting rods 5 and combined to six bamboo-shaped pipes with double height and an approximately identical structure.

The inner threads in top ends of pipes 4 at the top layer may be arranged to mount the plastic upper cover 1. The inner threads of the top and bottom ends of pipes 4 at the middle layer may be arranged to mount threaded connecting rods 5. The inner threads of the bottom ends of bamboo-shaped pipes 4 at the bottom layer may be arranged to mount the adjuster 7.

In some embodiments, the twelve bamboo-shaped pipes 4 may be respectively mounted and extended to form six upstanding pipes 8 via the thread connection of the six threaded connecting rods 5. If the height of the shelf is required to increase, the number of the threaded connecting rods 5 and the number of the bamboo-shaped pipes 4 may need to increase in order to increase the height of the shelf.

The clamping pieces 3 may be concave members with the protruding slice 32, the grooves 33, and the tongues 31 on the inner wall, which may be narrower at the top and wider at the bottom. The protruding slices 32 may be inserted into the grooves 33, so that each two clamping pieces 3 as a group can form a hollow truncated cone with circle tongues 31. The clamping pieces 3 may be engaged into the slots 41 of the bamboo-shaped pipes 4 via the tongues 31 on them, after that, the top and bottom seamless cone sleeves 61, 62 which may be mounted at the four corners of the net pieces 2 may be respectively inserted to encompass the outer surface of the clamping pieces 3. The net pieces 2 may be combined with the clamping pieces 3 and the bamboo-shaped pipes 4 through engaging the tongues 31 on the clamping pieces 3 with the slots 41 of the bamboo-shaped pipes 4.

Through corresponding clamping pieces 3 and mounting the connectors 5 with thread on the surface between the upper bamboo-shaped pipes 4 and lower bamboo-shaped pipes 4, the joinable net piece 2 may not only be extended in all directions, but each extended layer may also be positioned at the same level. Thus, the present disclosure may provide a solution that may overcome the technical defects in which it may be impossible or hard for the common shelf to extend in a right and left direction.

The present disclosure may provide a stable, high weight-bearing capability and unitary shelf, which is different from the existing pipe shelves assembled via clasps of iron pipes and N-shaped iron hook and/or through connecting horizontally the net pieces via the iron wire hooks on them to the holes drilled on the iron pipes. In existing shelves, if it needs to assemble two or more groups of shelves into one shelf by additional components in order to extend them horizontally, it is necessary that the whole groups must be assembled. This is time-consuming and material-consuming, because a group of shelf must be supported by four bamboo-shaped pipes, and two group of shelf must be supported by eight bamboo-shaped pipes when extended horizontally up to twice length of the original shelf. Accordingly, one bamboo-shaped pipe will be wasted no matter how the two bamboo-shaped pipes in the middle are connected, and it looks inelegant.

In contrast, in the present disclosure, when two or more group of shelves are combined and extended horizontally, only one bamboo-shaped pipe may be needed at their joint rather than additional connectors. Consequently, two bamboo-shaped pipes may be saved when each two groups of shelves are combined into a shelf, four bamboo-shaped pipes may be saved when each three groups of shelves are combined into a shelf and six bamboo-shaped pipes may be saved when each four group of shelves combined into a shelf, and so on, 2(n−1) bamboo-shaped pipes may be saved when each n groups of shelf is combined into a shelf.

For illustrating the extendable property of the shelf according to the present disclosure, some possible exemplary operations for assembling the shelf with four layers of net pieces are described as follows:

1. take four bamboo-shaped pipes 4 with iron plugs punched into their ends, and place a truncated cones formed by two clamping pieces 3 engaged each other at the bamboo-shaped pipe 4;

2. mount the first joinable net slice 2 through the seamless cone sleeves 61, 62;

3. fasten the clamping piece 3 to the seamless cone sleeves 61, 62 to form the first layer of the shelf;

4. adjust the adjuster 7 on the bottom end of the bamboo-shaped pipes 4 to ensure that the first net slice 2 is parallel to the ground;

5. mount another two bamboo-shaped pipes 4 transversely and the second net slice 2 horizontally;

6. mount the third net slice 2 at the prior four bamboo-shaped pipes 4 with iron plugs punched into their ends in vertical direction;

7. mount the fourth net slice 2 at the shelf obtained according to the step 6 in horizontally extended direction;

8. connect six bamboo-shaped pipes 4 upward via the thread connector 5 to the shelf, and then repeat the step 5, mount the fifth net piece 2 at the first layer in an extended direction horizontally,

9. repeat the step 6, mount the sixth net slice 2 in an extended direction vertically, until the whole shelf with three layers and two rows is formed.

Numerous other operations may also be performed without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Depending on the actual requirements, the bamboo-shaped pipes 4 with the clamping piece 32, 33 and the net sheets 4 may be mounted sequentially in extended direction vertically and horizontally.

The present disclosure overcomes many defects of the existing shelves, and provides a shelf which has many advantages including, but not limited to, a simple and compact structure, good stability, high weight-bearing capability, convenience for disassembly and assembly, low cost, elegant appearance, and good integrity, in addition that its net sheets can be adjusted freely to be fixed on the upper and lower position, left and right position, thus it has prospective benefits for both application and market.

It will be apparent to one skilled in the pertinent art that any simple modification, equivalent changes and decorates may be made with respect to the scheme mentioned, without departing from the content of the technical scheme of the present disclosure or depending on the technical substance of the present disclosure, all of which fall into the scope of the present disclosure.

The above disclosure is related to the detailed technical contents and inventive features thereof. People skilled in this field may proceed with a variety of modifications and replacements based on the disclosures and suggestions of the invention as described without departing from the characteristics thereof. Nevertheless, although such modifications and replacements are not fully disclosed in the above descriptions, they have substantially been covered in the following claims as appended. 

1. An extendable shelf comprising: a plurality of plastic upper covers configured as T-shaped bolts; a plurality of joinable net sheets; a plurality of clamping pieces; a plurality of bamboo-shaped pipes; a plurality of threaded connecting rods, wherein the plurality of bamboo-shaped pipes are assembled in pairs through thread engagement of said plurality of threaded connecting rods to form a plurality of bamboo-shaped pipes; a plurality of upper seamless cone sleeves; and a plurality of lower seamless cone sleeves, wherein both ends of each bamboo-shaped pipe are provided with inner iron plugs by means of punching; wherein the plurality of plastic upper covers, the plurality of joinable net sheets, the plurality of bamboo-shaped pipes, the plurality of clamping pieces, the plurality of threaded connecting rods, the plurality of upper seamless cone sleeves and lower seamless cone sleeves and plurality of adjusters configured as a plurality of foundation bolts, are assembled together in an extendable manner to form a whole shelf, which includes a plurality of layers, including a top layer, a middle layer and a bottom layer, and a plurality of rows, including a left row and a right row, of the joinable net sheets arranged on the plurality of bamboo-shaped pipes; and wherein the plurality of adjusters are thread engaged to inner threads of iron inner plugs punched into the bottom ends of the plurality of bamboo-shaped pipes, and the plurality of plastic top covers are engaged to inner threads of iron plugs punched into the top ends of the plurality of bamboo-shaped pipes.
 2. The extendable shelf according to claim 1, wherein: each of the plurality of joinable net sheets is a rectangular net piece comprising top boundary lines and bottom boundary lines, configured to surround grid pieces and being welded thereto; the plurality of upper seamless cone sleeves are respectively mounted on the plurality of top corners of one side of upper layer of the plurality of joinable net sheets, and the plurality of lower seamless cone sleeves are respectively mounted on the plurality of top corners of the other side of lower layer of the plurality of net sheets; and one end of the top boundary line is punched and bent near the lower seamless cone sleeves to encompass the grid pieces at one side, then is welded to connect with the upper seamless cone sleeves at the other side; one end of the bottom boundary line is punched and bent near the upper seamless cone sleeves to encompass the grid pieces at one side, then is welded and connected with the lower seamless cone sleeves at the other side.
 3. The extendable shelf as recited in claim 1, wherein: each of the height of the plurality of upper seamless cone sleeves and the height of the plurality of lower seamless cone sleeves is half of that of cone sleeves of net sheets in the existing shelf.
 4. The extendable shelf as recited in claim 1, wherein: the clamping pieces are concave with protruding slices on one side, grooves on the other side, and tongues on the inner wall, which are narrow at the top but wide at the bottom; and each two said clamping pieces are combined together so as to form a hollow truncated cone by inserting one into another, then fixedly placed on the joint of the plurality of bamboo-shaped pipes for connecting with the joinable net sheets.
 5. The extendable shelf as recited in claim 1, wherein: the plurality of bamboo-shaped pipes are pipe-shaped elements with slots uniformly placed on the surfaces thereof, the inner sides of the top end and bottom end of each said bamboo-shaped pipes being provided with iron inner plugs having inner threads by means of punching; the plurality of bamboo-shaped pipes are connected and mounted to form the plurality of bamboo-shaped pipes via the threads on the plurality of connecting rods; at least one of said clamping pieces combined by inserting one into another are engaged and fixed in the slots at the surface of the bamboo-shaped pipes through the tongues placed on the inner wall; and the plurality of top seamless cone sleeves and the plurality of bottom seamless cone sleeves which are mounted at the top corners of the plurality of net pieces are respectively inserted to encompass the outer surfaces of the plurality of clamping pieces engaged with each other.
 6. An extendable shelf as recited claim 1, wherein: the threaded connecting rods are double-ended bolts which have outer threads on the two ends and openings at the middle.
 7. An extendable shelf as recited claim 1, wherein: the plurality of joinable net sheets, at four top corners of which are respectively mounted the plurality of top seamless cone sleeves and the plurality of bottom seamless cone sleeves, are respectively placed and fixed in sequence, from bottom to top and from left to right, at the plurality of layers, i.e. a bottom layer, a middle layer and a top layer, of the plurality of bamboo-shaped pipes, which are surrounded by a plurality of said clamping pieces combined together. 